The women who made Star Trek

Right around 1989 and 1990, before DVRs and subscription services for TV shows were available, millions of fans around the US diluted their Monday blues with heated expectation for the evening, when they could finally see the next episode of Star Trek – the Next Generation. Helm secured at the hands of Jean-Luc Picard, we could all safely sail into the galaxy with Riker, Data and Geordi, in a future filled with alien star exploration and spaceship romance.

Trek – the Next Generation was the first of 5 reboots of the mother of all sci-fi TV shows: Star Trek. Star Trek was innovative and groundbreaking in its own right and in every way. It checked every mark on the list: it presented a diverse and multicultural cast, it dealt head-on with important issues of cultural and political themes using metaphoric adventures (and awesome CGI), it dared to defy tropy storylines, and, maybe in a way that has not been seen since on the small screen, it presented women as powerful.